BRAZOS COUNTY, Texas — A Brazos County man looked down the barrel of a...toilet, and faced what was there head-on.

The Bryan-College Station Eagle shared Ben Tedrick’s heroic tale of snake in toilet vs. man. 

Tedrick, no stranger to nope ropes, pulled a 5-foot Texas rat snake out of a toilet — He said that, for him, was a first.

According to the Eagle, the snake was found in a vacant home in north Brazos County after utilities were turned on after several years.

A cleaning crew at the house alerted Tedrick and he fashioned a makeshift lasso out of a mop handle and string. 

"I was impressed," he said in his interview with the Eagle. "I had him out about three feet when he coiled up again, and he pulled me forward. I was afraid his head was going to pop off, but he was perfectly OK. You could tell when I released him, it was like nothing [happened]."

Don’t worry, this truly is a rare occurrence.

"People shouldn't be worried at all," Lee A. Fitzgerald, Texas A&M professor in the department of wildlife and fisheries sciences told the paper. "You could never predict this. There is nothing about construction practices or building codes or anything like that could play a factor. It's just a random, uncommon thing to have a snake coming out of the toilet. It's rare."

But should you encounter such a thing...

"I wouldn't do anything rash like pour chemicals down the toilet or anything dangerous like that," Fitzgerald said. "... This happens. Snakes in the septic system are uncommon, but they're not unheard of. It's alarming, especially to find a big snake like that, but really it's just one of those random wildlife encounters."

Now watch the video in awe, amazement, fear and disgust — all at once. Thank you for your service and for being tech-savvy, Mr. Tedrick.